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ICE and GEO Group left worm-contaminated drinking water uncorrected at Adelanto detention facility despite court-ordered fix

On July 28, 2026, a detainee at the GEO Group-run Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California shared video of worm-like organisms in the facility's drinking water, corroborated by a second detainee and immigrant-rights attorneys. The discovery came despite a federal court's July 16 preliminary injunction ordering ICE to fix water, food, and sanitation conditions at the facility; plaintiffs' counsel said ICE had met the order's monitoring requirements but not its water and sanitation mandates. DHS denied any water-quality problem and said the facility uses the same municipal supply as surrounding Adelanto.

Part of: Trump ICE Defiance of Federal Court Orders

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Adelanto, California

Abuses documented

Actors

On July 28, 2026, a detainee at the GEO Group-operated Adelanto ICE Processing Center in Adelanto, California, showed his family a video of worm-like creatures in a container of the facility's drinking water. Carlos Jurado, the detainee's immigration attorney, shared the video with the Los Angeles Times; a second detainee, Larry Aguilar, corroborated the discovery, saying conditions "still remain the same." The contaminated water came from one of two 10-gallon coolers that roughly 80 detainees share for drinking, cooking, and coffee.

The discovery came two weeks after U.S. District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes granted a renewed preliminary injunction in a federal class-action lawsuit against DHS and ICE over conditions at the facility, ordering the agencies to provide detainees with clean water, adequate food, and improved sanitation, and to admit two independent third-party monitors. Carl Bergquist, policy counsel for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles (CHIRLA), a plaintiff in the suit, said ICE had met the order's monitor-related requirements but had not addressed the water, food, or sanitation problems the injunction was meant to fix. The federal government has separately filed an emergency request asking an appeals court to stay Sykes's ruling.

A DHS spokesperson denied any problem with the facility's water supply, telling the Times it is drawn from the same municipal system used by the surrounding city of Adelanto and that staff drink the same water as detainees. The spokesperson also criticized Sykes's ruling. Detainees said they have also been denied outdoor recreation for two months, with no explanation from staff.

Why we recorded this

Government custody carries a duty of humane treatment, and courts retain authority to enforce that duty once abuses are proven. A federal judge ordered ICE to fix water, food, and sanitation conditions at the Adelanto detention facility; weeks later, detainees found worm-like organisms in their drinking water, and plaintiffs' counsel says the water and sanitation mandates remain unmet. This archive records when a court-ordered remedy for custodial conditions goes unimplemented, leaving detainees exposed to the same hazards the ruling was meant to end.

Sources

  1. Video shows worm-like creatures in drinking water at Southern California ICE detention center — Los Angeles Times primary accessed August 3, 2026
  2. Exclusive: Video Footage Appears to Show Drinking Water Contaminated With Worms Inside Adelanto ICE Processing Center — L.A. TACO investigative accessed August 3, 2026
  3. Adelanto ICE Processing Center — GEO Group primary accessed August 3, 2026

See also